The Stillness of January - “Be Still and Know that I am God.”

This month following the season of Christmas has always been an important time of the year for me. Although the days are getting longer, it appears that darkness still has the upper hand with the overcast sky and the piling snow. It is a time when the temperature keeps me inside and the wind seems to make even my bones cold!

However, being a prisoner of winter can have it’s advantages too. The stillness of a January snow can, in fact, call us into an extended time for prayer and reflection. It’s not that our worries and concerns go away. This time of year can help us refocus on what is truly important in life because we have the time to be still. In the stillness, we have the opportunity to connect on a deeper level with God.

We can create a space where our Lord can touch us with His healing hand so we can cast off memories of past hurts, disappointments, and our sins. Or we can be afraid of the silence, victims of those past sins and failures. As Catholics, we need to remember that our loving God could care less about the past wrongs we have committed in our human weakness. It is our pride and embarrassment that wants to convict us with fear and hopelessness. Not our Lord! “How can God ever forgive my past,” is the cry of the weak in faith! We cling to our past rather than rejoice in God’s forgiveness and mercy.

To know the love of God is to realize in the very fiber of our being that our Lord cares about the here and now, not our past. The stillness we seek is the stillness of letting God be God. And who is God? The answer is simple - as St. John reminds us, “God is Love and those who abide in Love abide in God and God abides in them.”

The hush of stillness is directly opposite to the cacophony of regret and lack of self-forgiveness. To be still is to know the love of God is not a feeling but rather the conviction of our whole person. In that stillness we pray, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” not, “How can You love me.” God just loves. We find Him in the stillness and warmth of His incarnate love – Jesus the Christ. So turn off the 24-hour news cycle. Put aside the social media. Stop complaining about the weather. “Be still and know that I am God,” and “God is love.”